1/09/2006 @ 12:00AM

ITT Industries

Ah, the heady days of ITT Industriesas a classic conglomerate, with Harold Geneen assembling a hodgepodge of unrelated businesses in insurance, auto parts and hotels. Most of that is now gone. Areinvented ITT, which began life in the telegraph business, is now centered on defense gadgets like radar-jamming systems and night-vision goggles for military use, along with an array of water pumps, aerators and filters for water-treatment plants. The focus sure works. Over the last five years ITThas averaged a 28%total return, and its debt has been kept to a modest 18% of capital, compared with 59% for GEand 28% for United Technologies. Chief Executive Steven Loranger continues to make focus his mantra. The onetime chief operating officer at Textron and former head of Honeywell’s engine division unloaded ITT’s auto-tubing business last month to Cooper-Standard Automotive for $205 million cash and is now shopping the company’s electronic switches business.